The Four Parallel Rivers

Our Series on Oddities takes us to the highlands of Southeastern China, where a series of parallel geological folds host the valleys of four major Asian rivers: The Irrawaddy, which flows into the Bay of Bengal, the Salween, which flows into the Andaman Sea, the Mekong, which flows into the South China Sea, and the Yangtze, which flows into the East China Sea.

While it is not rare to see river basins on long parallel courses, the fact that two very long rivers would follow a course "sandwiched" between two other rivers, and the downstream divergence of all four rivers makes this hydrographic situation very unique.